Abstract


Textile is a vast field ever growing with the improvement inthe field of science and technology. Though varieties of fabrics are availablein the market, since silk continues to be the queen of fabrics due to comfortqualities and eco-friendly nature of the fibre. The aesthetic appeal of silkcan be improved by better degumming. The fibroins of cocoon silk are naturallygummed together with impurities like wax, protein, sericin, pectin, andpigments. They are removed by conventional treatments with soap, alkali andoxidizing agents under rather general conditions of treatment such as highalkalinity, high temperature and highly oxidative environment for extendedlength of time. Thus, these processes are not only energy and time consumes buttends to degrade basic material.


Today, new process and products are closely linked withbiotechnology in many research and industrial fields. These are the mostdiverse possibilities for its profitable use in the textile industry. Enzyme isa biotechnology product, which are the new addition in the field of textilefinishing. Many areas of textile enzyme finishing like cotton, linen, jute, andrayon have been conquered since then. Today, prospects lie in the field ofdeveloping new durable enzyme finishes for silk. In this research workdifferent natural sources of proteolytic enzymes like Biodegummase, Papain,Trypsin and Pepsin are applied on silk filament to know the effect of enzymesin sericin removal and fastness properties of silk fabric. The enzymes are appliedat three different concentrations 5%, 7.5% and 10% respectively and the fabricis dyed with acid dyes at 3% shade. The present study showed better gum loss of21% when compared to 16% in soap degumming, better dye uptake, colour strength,luster and softness of fabric compared to soap. From the results, it can beinferred that proteolytic-biodegummase enzyme is the best one followed bypapain and trypsin. So these natural enzymes could be used for silk degummingeffectively in industries as they have the added advantage of being eco-friendlyin nature.




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About the Author:


The authorsare Lecturer in the Department of Fashion Technology at Kumaraguru College ofTechnology, Coimbatore